databases, operating systems, distributed systems – comprise the foundation of modernity • We rely upon this software and these systems to be robust, secure, and available – now and into the future • This dependency – and especially its projection into the future – necessitates trust: a forward belief in future behavior
trust, e.g.: ◦ Correctness: Does the software do the right thing? ◦ Reliability: How does the software cope with failures around it? ◦ Security: How does the software fare against an adversary? ◦ Transparency: How can the software’s operation be verified? • …but each of these elements of technical trust is ultimately rooted in something more messier: human trust
with the technical artifact – and the artifact itself is inert, meaning it can be studied, attested to, etc. • But if (as?) it needs to be said, humans and computing systems are not the same: humans are dynamic, fickle, capricious, fallible, vulnerable • How can we trust something so unpredictable?! • Fortunately, humans, also exist within a society – and can be held responsible for their actions • Humans have accountability
but the complexion of that responsibility itself can be murky • Accountability implies potential consequence for actions – but those consequences aren’t (necessarily!) punishment or even justice • At the minimum, accountability denotes an explanation and rationalization for actions
trust co-exist in a delicate balance: ◦ If there is no accountability, trust becomes faith in benevolence… ◦ …but if we overemphasize accountability, we undermine trust! • This balance is reinforced by our own notions of reciprocity: we ourselves want to be trusted!
of trust: ◦ Institutional trust: Trust placed in the entities that bind everyone ◦ Organizational trust: Trust placed in formal, self-advancing entities ◦ Community trust: Trust placed in self-selecting groups, often bound by shared values or circumstance • Accountability and reciprocity vary wildly across these!
The rise of open source can be seen through the lens of trust • In an all-proprietary world, there was little accountability – we were beholden to the benevolence of software providers • Open source added an important mechanism of accountability – and also served to provide technical trust through transparency • But more importantly, open source allowed for trust to be shifted: from trust in an organization to trust in a community
within the organization – and trust from outside the organization • These can diverge wildly: organizations that have the trust of customers may not trust their own employees – or vice versa • Organizations vary wildly in terms of trust – and vary over time! • As with all trust, it’s easier to lose it than to earn it • Broadly speaking, organizational trust is fraying in 2025
to trust: ◦ They often share values, making trust easier to build – and to repair ◦ They often (but not always!) have more transparency ◦ They are often fluid, allowing for an ultimate accountability: people will leave communities that they don’t trust • That said, community trust is being buffeted by the forces of declining institutional and organizational trust!
term in his vocabulary. It was trust. “Trust is risk, and risk avoidance is the name of the game in business,” West said once, in praise of trust. He would bind his team with mutual trust, he had decided. When a person signed up to do a job for him, he would in turn trust that person to accomplish it; he wouldn’t break it down into little pieces and make the task small, easy and dull. – Soul of New Machine by Tracy Kidder (1981)
collaborations and innovations • Ask people about the teams that have been most gratifying in their career, and you will find they have always been bound by mutual trust • This is certainly true for history’s storied teams! • To phrase it in terms of the inverse: the absence of mutual trust creates a culture of fear – which is anathema to knowledge work • How do we create mutual trust? And what does accountability look like?
for mutual trust: it is vastly easier to create mutual trust in the presence of shared values and intrinsic motivation! • Organizations must articulate shared values… • …and use those shared values as a lens for team formation! • Team formation isn’t just hiring (though certainly that!) – it’s incumbent on individuals too to seek out the organizations and communities in which they share values and intrinsic motivation!
very important kind of accountability • This is not just code – even on (especially on?) the most technical teams, prose is an essential artifact! • Writing our ideas down allows us to be accountable to ourselves • Writing is such an important kind of accountability that we at Oxide use it extensively in our hiring process – which is surprisingly unusual!
hold itself accountable • At Oxide, some invaluable transparency measures: ◦ Our writing-intensive hiring process makes it easy to open within the company (which does not mean it’s consensus-driven!) ◦ All meetings are recorded (see RFD 537 Record Every Meeting) ◦ Compensation is transparent (and also… uniform)
is that it implies total autonomy • While autonomy is essential for one’s craft, trust does not mean chaos! • In the presence of mutual trust, clarity is especially effective! • Organizational leadership can allow for directed autonomy by dedicating itself to fostering trust and providing clarity
is the bedrock upon which we build everything: our institutions, our organizations, our communities • Trust – like infrastructure – needs work, maintenance and repair • We must not let declines in institutional trust drag down our organizations and communities! • There is a scale in our lives at which each of us has total agency – and fostering mutual trust at that scale is incumbent upon all of us
2022 talk, Introspection Gaps • My Monktoberfest 2017 talk, Principles of Technology Leadership • RFD 2 Mission, Principles and Values • RFD 3 Oxide Hiring Process • Oxide and Friends, Reflecting on Founder Mode and RTO or GTFO
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